Unemployment in Germany fell for a 23rd straight month in May the Federal Labour Agency in Nuremberg said on Tuesday. The decline in unemployment is said to be largely due to increased spending by consumers and businesses and export driven growth according to the agency. Numbers fell to 2.96 million or 7 percent from April’s 7.3 percent, reflecting a drop of 118.000, to reach the lowest since records began for a reunified Germany in 1991....
Japanese car manufacturers Honda and Toyota reported on Friday a global production drop of around half for April compared to figures the same period last year. Toyota reported a 47.8 percent slump in April to 308.555 vehicles while Honda announced a 52.9 percent drop year-on-year. The car manufacturers said the production decrease was due to a shortage of parts which was triggered by the supply chain disruption following the March earthquake and tsunami. According to Honda, production volume in Asia and Oceania is likely to start picking up in July as the supply of parts from Japan gradually increases....
French finance minister Christine Lagarde late on Wednesday formerly launched her bid to lead the IMF as managing director. Lagarde, a former corporate lawyer, is the favourite to succeed Dominique Strauss-Kahn who resigned following sexual assault allegations. Augustine Carstens, the governor of the Mexican central bank, is another key contender for the position. The IMF executive directors representing BRICS on Tuesday called for a “transparent, merit-based and competitive process”, saying that selecting a European as managing director undermined the legitimacy of the IMF. Australia’s largest pay-TV provider Foxtel has made a $2.0...
The head of Greece’s conservative party, Antonis Samaras, announced late on Tuesday that he would not back a further €6bn austerity measure to reduce the country’s deficit. The political stalemate over austerity measures is threatening to jeopardise the country’s next tranche of a €110bn bailout worth €12bn, which is due in June. Greece announced on Monday the immediate sale of state assets including the ports of Piraeus and Thessaloniki, and shares in OTE, Greece’s telecom operator. Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou pledged to go ahead with the drastic privatisation plan in an attempt to reduce its elevated debt level. In ...
Electronics giant Sony announced late on Monday a revised surprise $3.18bn net loss for the fiscal year that ended in March. It originally posted a profitable projection of $857m in February. The company said the loss was triggered by the production disruptions due to the March earthquake and tsunami and the cyber attack on its online gaming service. Sony estimates the April hacker attack, which forced the site to stay offline for 23 days and involved the theft of personal data from over 100 million users, will cost around $171m to fix. The electronics company was not scheduled to report final earnings until Thursday but a rule imposed by...
Low cost airline Ryanair posted a 26 percent profit increase to €401m in the year to March compared to €319m the previous year. Revenue rose 21 percent to €3.63bn from €2.98bn year-on-year due to a 12 percent jump in airfares, the company said on Monday. “We were pleased to deliver a 26 percent increase in profits and eight percent traffic growth, despite higher oil prices, the global recession, and volcanic ash disruptions in Q1 last year,” CEO Michael O’Leary said. The no frills airline also reported an eight percent increase in passenger traffic with a total of 72.1 million passengers. However, O’Leary warned that traff...
Tokyo Electric Power, the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant hit by the tsunami in March, announced on Friday an all time high $15bn net loss due to the disaster which destroyed four of its reactors. The news was followed by the resignation of Tepco’s president Masataka Shimuzu, and the head of the nuclear division, Sakae Muto, who were both criticised for their handling of the nuclear disaster. “We feel sorry for the victims of the earthquake and tsunami. At the same time we want to sincerely apologise for our nuclear reactors in Fukushima causing so much anxiety, worry and trouble to society,” Shimuzu said at a conference...
Dominique Strauss-Kahn has resigned as head of the IMF according to a statement issued late on Wednesday by the global finance body. Strauss-Kahn, who faces charges of sexual assault and attempted rape in New York, said in his resignation letter: “I deny with the greatest possible firmness all of the allegations that have been made against me.” He added: “I will devote all my strength, all the time, and all my energy to proving my innocence.” John Lipsky has been appointed by the board of directors as the interim head of the IMF and will replace Strauss-Kahn at the G8 summit in Deauville on May 26....
Texas-based technology company Dell reported late on Tuesday that its Q1 profits had almost tripled due to stronger than expected big business sales. Net income according to the company jumped to $945m from $341m a year earlier and revenue rose 1 percent to $15bn. The technology stalwart saw operating income reaching $1.2bn, while enterprise solutions and services revenue was up 5 percent to $4.4bn led by a server revenue increase of 11 percent. “We’re off to a solid start in our fiscal year 2012. Our substantial profit increase demonstrates that our strategy is working and our execution is improving,” said chairman and CEO Michael Dell...
BP’s attempt to gain a grip in Russia’s Arctic oilfields through a £10bn share swap deal with state controlled company Rosneft has collapsed after BP failed to address a dispute and reach an agreement with its partner TNK before the midnight Monday deadline. The Russian half of the Russian-British TNK-BP joint venture had threatened in April to file a law suit for up to $10m against its parent company BP, saying BP breached its shareholder agreement for going straight to state oil company OAO Rosneft rather than through TNK-BP. Rosneft and BP signed a share swap deal in January which agreed the joint development of the Russian Arctic s...